Costa Rica Chirripo Finca Jose

The dry fragrance shows spiced fruit and with brooding dark-sugar sweetness, our City and Full City roasts smelling so attractive. The wet aroma smells fruit-forward, berry jams and fruited syrups, a resonant maple-sugar sweetness on the break. Light present a mouth-cleansing brightness, marked by a mouthfeel of citrus spritzer and bracing tea. Fruited tones are also very tea-like, and the finish is clear and pointed. Peak roasts are loaded with grape and dark berry notes, accents of candied citrus peel and roast complexity, and lasting, fruited-cocoa finish. This showstopper Costa Rica achieves remarkable cleanliness using a filter cone and paper filters.

Finca Jose is tucked in a unique rocky outcropping in the area of the Chirripó National Park, a zone called La Piedra de Rivas. Unlike the coffee regions most are familiar with - Tarrazu, Central Valley, or the Western Valley regions - this part of La Piedra de Rivas is on a road less traveled, a dead-end road actually, the end intersecting the few micromills serving farmers in the region. Finca Jose is a 16 hectare farm (tops out at 1950 meters) run by a man of the same name, who acquired this land from his grandfather some time ago. This past year Jose and his brother Jonny have invested in building out their own micromill on property adjacent to Jonny's home (where they do mechanically-washed processing), allowing them to have a more direct hand in the sale of their coffee as parchment, rather then sell whole cherry to one of the neighboring mills. They have 23 hectares between them, and the ability to run a mill of this size at capacity.